The mob health

Background Organized crime is a relevant issue in southern part of Italy. Recent studies has suggested that incidence of neoplastic diseases, respiratory chronic diseases and congenital malformations is increased in the areas of the country that are infiltrated by organized crime. The aim of this study is to underline a likely association between organized crime infiltration and citizens’ health in Italy. Methods The presence of organized crime was estimated through the IPM index (Transcrime research center, 2012) for each of the 110 Italian provinces. Hence, its association with mortality rates (computed by the Italian centre of statistics) was investigated using Spearman rank correlation. Moreover, we attempted to evaluate if this association was affected by various exogenous factors such as pollution, unemployment and income. Results Spearman-correlation and multiple linear regression were used to test the likely relationship between the IPM and several health rate. From the statistical association, defined through the test of Spearman, is possible understood how the unemployment rate and the organized crime have a statistically significant positive correlation (p <0.05). It’s possible define an even closer correlation between the IPM and the standardized mortality rate for each Italian province for the year 2011. The presence of Mafia (IPM) showed a direct correlation with the mortality rate. Adjusted multiple regression analysis showed a significant association between the IPM and overall mortality rate (β=0.40;p<0.0001;R-squared=0.19) and for the feminine mortality rate (β=0.17;p<0.0001;R-squared=0.14). This significant relationship was also obtained analyzing the cardiovascular mortality rate. The analysis showed the exogenous factors are not confounders. Conclusion Although a causal correlation is very difficult to define between the considerated dimension, this study has showed that the presence of organized mafia can be considered one of the health determinants in the area where this phenomena is present. Understand the complexity of these dynamics could bring a new awareness about these issues and their consequences but new studies are necessary to characterize the impact of the organized crime on the citizen’s health.